


The Ghosts of Apartment 221B

by darth_stitch



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, Ghosts, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, POV Outsider, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 04:10:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2567729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darth_stitch/pseuds/darth_stitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone knew that the place was haunted.   But the little girl wasn't scared.  Steve let her in anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ghosts of Apartment 221B

**Author's Note:**

> While I don't go into detail over the domestic violence and the child abuse (which is mainly of the emotional sort), please tread carefully if you are triggered or find these topics disturbing. 
> 
> Originally posted at [The Blanket Fort](http://darthstitch.tumblr.com/post/99533404781/the-ghosts-of-apartment-221b-jesse-wasnt-afraid) \- but the AO3 version has some changes that I wasn't able to pull off the first time. :)

Jesse wasn’t afraid of the ghosts in Apartment 221B.

Everyone knew that the place was haunted.  Nobody who’d ever moved in there stayed for long.  The funny thing was that what made them move wasn’t ghastly groans and moanings in the night, eerie shadows, cold spots or any of the creepy things in stories and movies.  They just went away.  And sometimes, they’d say, _"It just doesn’t feel right.  I don’t know.  We’re just not comfortable here."_

Nana Penny, who knew everything, told Jesse all about it. That apartment hadn’t been lived in since the War and in Nana’s world and in the history books Jesse found from library (which were a lot more interesting than the internet, sometimes), the War was World War II.  There were two very nice young men who used to live in that apartment, the Two Best Boys in All of Brooklyn.  

Nana Penny said that once upon a time, there were some very Bad Men who wanted to _hurt_ her

(And Jesse knew about Bad Men and _hurting_ and she imagined Nana Penny looking like Mommy did when the Bad Daddy was in one of his “moods.”)

and she thought she’d be a goner for sure.  But Steve - _Steve_ was the name of one of the boys - came in like a very tiny avenging angel.  He clocked one Bad Man a really good one with a trash can lid.  And Bucky - because that was the name of the other boy - he’d given the other two a sound thrashing and a kick in the pants for good measure.

(Jesse thought that sometimes the Bad Daddy _deserved_ a kick in the pants.  For good measure.)

Nana Penny showed them her picture of The Two Best Boys in All of Brooklyn.  Jesse liked their faces.  She wanted to look at them all the time.  There was something in them that just made her think that Nana was _right_ about how kind they were. 

Unlike most of the stories in Jesse’s books, the two best boys in all of Brooklyn did not have a happy ending.  They both went off to the War and they died as heroes, but there was no one to bring their bodies home.  So maybe that was why they haunted 221B.  Maybe they had been poor, like everyone in those days was poor, but they had each other and they loved each other and this was their home.

And maybe they didn’t want anyone else to be in their home.  So maybe that was why this apartment could never hold a tenant for long, though nothing really spooky ever happened.

Eventually Nana Penny gave Jesse her Steve and Bucky picture.

The key to the apartment came a little later.

Jesse’s apartment upstairs wasn’t a real home, at least not in the way most people said they were.  She had a Mommy, the most beautiful, kindest, sweetest Mommy in all the world. 

The problem was the Bad Daddy.

Mommy used to say that Daddy wasn’t all that bad, that he was just going through a “tough time” and they should understand and give him his space.  And be very, very quiet when he’s trying to work.  Daddy was a good man, a kind man.  

The trouble was that Jesse could not remember the Bad Daddy ever being kind. 

The trouble was that the Bad Daddy smelled bad all the time and he was always angry and he made Mommy cry.  Jesse knew why that was so, even though she was just six going on seven.  He drank from all these bottles that had “whiskey” on the label, even at breakfast, instead of drinking milk or coffee like other grown-ups did. 

Sometimes Mommy made Jesse put on her headphones and play music on her iPod and go to her room and be very, very quiet. 

Jesse could still hear the thumps and the Bad Daddy’s yelling and Mommy crying.

Jesse cried too.

Sometimes, it was better to go to her books - because Jesse liked to read and knew, even then, that books were her friends.  She’d open a book and imagine herself far, _far_ away, going on adventures like Bastian and riding the Luck Dragon in _The Never Ending Story_.  

Sometimes, she’d take out Nana’s picture of Steve and Bucky and look at their faces and imagine they were there when the Bad Daddy got all mean.  Maybe they could make him  _stop._

So when Nana took one more look at Mommy’s black eye - she said she’d bumped her head, because she was clumsy -

( _Jesse, it’s just a little lie, a little white lie.  We don’t want to give people the wrong idea about your Daddy, do we?)_

\- and saw Jesse trying to wipe away her own tears, because she was going to be brave, Nana Penny pressed a key into Jesse’s hands. 

_I’m sure Steve and Bucky won’t mind if you hid out at their place from time to time._

So that was what Jesse did now.  She’d let her Mommy know where she was, of course, because Mommy shouldn’t worry.  And really, Nana Penny told Mommy that going downstairs to 221B was quite all right. “Every child needs to play a little bit of make-believe on their own sometimes.”

Jesse would make herself peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, being really careful with the knife, even though it was one meant for little kids like her.  She’d have a thermos of her juice or maybe hot chocolate.  She had her blanket and her favorite books. 

The very first time, even though Nana gave her a key and everything, Jesse knocked on the door.  And then she said, "“Hello, Steve and Bucky.  May I come in?”

Mommy taught her to be polite.  Even if she was talking to ghosts. 

The very first time, the door _did_ open and there was Steve, as tiny as Nana had described him, with his bright blue eyes and his kind smile.  "Bucky isn't here, but you can come in and stay for a while." 

And so she did. 

Jesse spent many a pleasant afternoon in 221B, just like Bastian in the Never Ending Story.  She had her sandwiches, sometimes a cookie or two or three.   She had her books.  Sometimes she pretended she was the Great Detective with his Doctor and that 221B was the same as that famous apartment all the way in London.  Sometimes she pretended she was Captain Jack Sparrow and that old couch that no one had ever gotten rid of in 221B was the Black Pearl. 

Steve was a very friendly ghost.  Sometimes, he'd sit next to her and draw on his sketchbook - silly little doodles of animals.  He knew how to draw Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and Snow White, but he'd yet to draw the other Disney Princesses.  So Jesse had to show him and he would draw them for her.  He'd tell her stories to go with the drawings too.   Sometimes he would tell her stories about the older drawings - about people named Peggy and Dum Dum, Howie and Monty, Gabe and Jim. 

These were the stories about the War.  Steve was a Captain.  He smiled and said that he never really _did_ get to punch Hitler for real and maybe he didn't actually punch out a dinosaur, but he did enough fighting against the Nazis and HYDRA because they were bullies and they needed to be stopped. 

"Keep the thing about Hitler and the dinosaurs on the down low, okay?" Steve asked her, bright blue eyes full of mischief.  "Bucky used to tell me that even if it wasn't true, it just makes things more interesting.  He loves to tell tall tales like that."

She giggled and promised. 

She would ask him about Bucky, because it was strange that she never saw him and at that, Steve would look sad and maybe a little bit troubled and would say, "You know what? I don't know why Bucky isn't here.  He should be _home_ , I know it."

"Maybe it's just taking him a while to get here," Jesse supposed. 

"He's sure taking his own sweet time about it, the jerk," Steve grumbled.  And then, if it was possible for ghosts to turn pink, he would have.  "Oh.  That wasn't a very nice word.  Please don't repeat that."

She giggled.  "Some people are mean and they really are jerks.  But maybe not Bucky."

He smiled.  "Yeah.  Maybe not Bucky.  Let's just give that name to the mean people who really deserve it, yeah? Like bullies."

What she didn't tell him was that she thought the Bad Daddy was a real jerk.  That _he_ was a bully.  But she didn't want to think about _him._

She could forget about the Bad Daddy and everything else for a while.

One day, she knocked on the apartment door and Steve wasn't there.  She called and called but he never showed himself.  And he never answered. 

He never got to say goodbye. 

She stayed in the apartment anyway.  She still had his sketchbook.  The last thing he drew for her was Mulan.  He thought, just like Jesse did, that Mulan was pretty neat.  

And then, perhaps a few weeks or so later, Mommy was frightened and told Jesse she wasn't going to school.  There were actual _aliens_ in New York and they were attacking and there were these heroes, called the Avengers, fighting them.   When Nana saw them on the TV, she exclaimed, "That's Stevie! Captain America, right there, that's our Stevie!" 

Steve looked a _lot_ different from the small, kind man who'd let her into his home.  He was a lot bigger and a lot stronger.  Later on, the TV people would interview him and he would smile, like a movie star.  But Jesse always thought that when he stopped smiling, his eyes seemed to be so very sad. 

***

Much, much later,  when Jesse was a little older but would still consider the empty Apartment 221B as her Safe Place, she would finally find Bucky.

He looked a little bit different, because he had longer hair and he had stubble on his chin but it was _definitely_ Bucky because Jesse had spent all those hours looking at his picture.

Also, his left arm was shiny and silver. 

But she wasn’t afraid.  He didn’t look mean or nasty.  He just looked.

Lost.  Yes.  That was the word.

He looked _lost._

So Jesse tried to be polite first.  “Hello, Bucky.  Please let me stay here for a while?  Steve used to let me in, all the time.”

"Steve?"  Bucky looked around wildly.  "Is Steve here?"

Jesse frowned.  “You’re both supposed to be ghosts, but I guess Steve's not a ghost anymore.  He really missed you a lot when he was here, though.  Are you still a ghost?”

That startled a wild, rusty laugh out of him.  “I’m not… I’m not a ghost.”  Another beat.  “I think.”

Jesse wasn’t sure what was going on but she did the next best thing, because Bucky looked hungry.  “Do you want a sandwich?”

Evidently, ghosts who weren’t ghosts after all - or so he thought - liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches just fine. 

Jesse learned that Bucky wasn’t really a ghost. 

He liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chocolate chunk chip cookies.  He liked Nana Penny’s fudge brownies too.  Sometimes, he shared hot dogs with Jesse, though he said that he worried that she would spoil her dinner.

"I don’t like to eat a lot at dinnertime.  Daddy’s even meaner then. I can’t eat," Jesse confessed.

Bucky pressed his lips together into a thin line, like there were so many things he wanted to say, but he didn’t want to let the words out.  But then he smiled, and ruffled her hair.  And all he said afterwards was “Do you want another hot dog?”

They’d read from _The Never Ending Story_ , taking turns and Bucky always helped Jesse with the hard words, sounding them out.  And then, Jesse, greatly daring, read him _The Hobbit_ the way her Aunt Bead read it to her.  

"Isn’t Bilbo Baggins supposed to be a boy?" Bucky wondered.

"Aunt Bead says that Bilbo can be a girl if we want to _imagine_ her to be.  So in _my_ story, she’s a girl!”  

Bucky thought about it, cocking his head to one side.  “Well, I always did imagine Bilbo to be five foot nothing, blonde and plenty of trouble.  Bilbo could be a girl too - maybe about yea high, red hair, all Took, all trouble all day long.”

Jesse giggled.  “I’m a Baggins of Bag End!”

"Your mama was a Took!"

They laughed together.  They muffled their laughter in the blankets, because really, it wouldn’t do if people found out there were _real_ ghosts at 221B. 

All right, so maybe Bucky wasn’t a real ghost but then, there was the time Nana Penny got her medicine for her rheumatism, sitting right on her kitchen table, even though her hip was hurting and she couldn’t go out and her usual helper couldn’t make it that day.  There was the time Milo, the art student who lived next door to Jesse, found a box of pencils that he’d needed but couldn’t afford to buy yet.  It was on his desk.  He didn’t know how on earth those things got there. 

There was nice Mister Reeves, who _had_ given a cup of coffee and his special chicken noodle soup to a shaggy-haired young man he thought needed it badly.  He didn’t know said shaggy-haired young man had secretly taken up residence back in his old home.  He also didn’t know it was the same man who’d thoughtfully left him some cough medicine when he’d caught a chill.  Mister Reeves told Jesse, Nana Penny and anyone in the building about his “guardian angel”  and blessed him over and over. 

So maybe Bucky wasn’t a ghost.  He sure moved like one though. 

Jesse liked the fact that _she_ was living a grand adventure all her own.  Just like in her books.  

Looking back, maybe it was better if Jesse had gone to 221B for that day. 

But Mommy looked sad and Jesse had thrown her arms around her waist, giving her a hug.  And Mommy said, “Let’s make cookies today” and Jesse was so happy about that.

Except the Bad Daddy came out of the bedroom, smelling bad and looking mean again.

"I want something to eat."

Mommy paled.  “We’re making cookies, hon.  But I’ll fix something up for you, okay.”

"Fucking cookies.  Who says you can make fucking cookies?!" 

Something was wrong.  Something was _very_ wrong this time.  The Bad Daddy’s eyes were red and his temper was fouler than before and he raised his hand and swept Mommy’s beautiful blue mixing bowl away from the kitchen counter.  It shattered on the floor. 

Jesse made a little shriek and the Bad Daddy got angrier. 

But this time, Mommy got between her and the Bad Daddy. 

"That’s _enough._ We love you, David, but you have to _stop_ this.  You have to stop the drinking and god knows what else you’ve been doing.  You’re hurting us!  You’re hurting your own daughter!”  

It happened very fast.  The Bad Daddy grabbed Mommy by the hair.  Mommy struck out with her fists, Jesse kicked at his shins.

"Stop it, Daddy! Stop it! Stoppit! Stoppit! Stoppit!"

"David, no!  Don’t you hurt her!  Jesse, _run!”_

When Jesse tries to remember it now, she remembers that there was a crash and Bucky was there and then she understood what Nana meant when Bucky could give a man a _thrashing._  

Later on, the police came and took the Bad Daddy away and Mommy sat Jesse down and told her that Daddy had to go away, because he was sick and he wasn’t getting better and he was hurting not just himself but them too.  So it had to stop.  It had to stop.  And Mommy cried and said she was sorry, so Jesse had to hug her because it wasn’t Mommy’s fault. 

Jesse knew it was the Bad Daddy’s.  It was his fault.  All of it. 

The sad part of things was that Bucky disappeared.

The police asked her all sorts of questions about her friend.  And then there was a very nice man in a suit who asked her questions too.  But she told them the same things.  Bucky was nice.  Bucky liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies.  Bucky liked the Never Ending Story and let her tell the Hobbit story with Bilbo as a girl and _enjoyed_ it.

And later on, he told the Hobbit story with Bilbo as “a tiny, five foot blonde Irish firecracker who never knew how to back down from a fight” - except that his version involved a Red Skull instead of a dragon and he had Commandos instead of Dwarves. 

What she didn't tell them was that the first ghost she'd met was _Steve_.  That he'd drawn for her, told her just as many silly stories and occasionally said words that shouldn't be said around small children and he'd blush and flounder and she would laugh.  That he didn't like bullies and that he was the first person who gave Jesse her Safe Place.  That she still had his sketchbook and because of Steve, she knew all the stories behind his drawings.  She knew all about Peggy and the Commandos and the War.  And not punching Hitler and dinosaurs.  

Bucky and Steve were kind, the way Daddy was supposed to be and never was.

She missed them both. 

And then, one day, she met Steve.  Again.  

Again, she couldn't help but think how _different_ he looked from the first time she met him.  He was tall and probably a lot stronger than the bad Daddy.  Maybe as strong as Bucky.  He looked just as heroic as the comic book Captain America, probably even more so.  But his smile never changed.  It was still that same kind expression that told Jesse she could trust him.  

And when he set eyes on Jesse, he no longer looked so sad.  In fact, they lit up with that familiar mischief. 

"I know you, don't I?" He asked.

She nodded.  And this time, she ran into his arms and got a hug in return. 

Some things definitely didn't change.  Steve still loved to draw and he was happy to learn that Jesse had his sketchpad.  He told her she could keep it.  He was definitely fond of peanut butter jelly sandwiches and Nana's fudge brownies. 

And most of all, he wanted Jesse to tell him stories about Bucky.  He missed him too.

Eventually, Steve moved into Apartment 221B for real, not as a ghost.  And Nana Penny threw her arms around him and cried and he hugged her back and said something funny that made her laugh instead.  And Apartment 221B was always open for Jesse.  She could always run down there whenever she wanted to. 

Mommy eventually told Jesse that the Bad Daddy wasn’t coming back there anymore.  Sometimes, things don’t just work out.  As Mommy said, making sure you had a home where you were _safe_ and _loved_ was the most important thing of all.  

Jesse thought that Steve was every bit like the Bilbo Bucky had reimagined.  But they both missed Bucky.  So very much.

And then, one day, Jesse went down to Apartment 221B and found Steve and Bucky together.  They had their arms around each other and they were both crying but somehow they were both happy too.  And then, they kissed.

Jesse decided to come visit again another time. But as she ran back upstairs, her heart was light.

Steve and Bucky were home together once more.

_\- end -_

**Author's Note:**

>  **Note:** I probably will write more along the vein of this [plot bunny](http://ink-phoenix.tumblr.com/post/99303366932/thunderboltsortofapenny-invisiblespork) that the Excellent People on my Dashboard keep bouncing around and FEEDING.  Stay tuned.   ** giggles at [thunderboltsortofapenny](http://tmblr.co/mMLibmTPyQ-_nsAaMDSMZsQ) and the merry crew **
> 
> Also dedicated to [bead-bead](http://tmblr.co/mP6GoJpk3he--INLY2ReKRQ) who snuck into this story without warning! :)
> 
> I have included trigger warnings for domestic violence and child abuse.  Though I didn’t detail things, I figured I might as well tag to avoid any upset. 
> 
> Yeah, in my universe, the boys live in the American 221B, MWAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.  


End file.
